¡Mi Cumple (Birthday) en España!

I apologize to any friends or family who have been following my blog. I am well aware that I'm not the most avid blogger but I've REALLY been slacking over the past two months. Hopefully I'll finish up my time here with a bang and provide you with many more entries ~ because I've got lots to tell!

February 4th was my 23rd birthday. Naturally, a fiesta was in order. My friend Antolin's 34th was at the end of the month so we decided to have a joint birthday party at my apartment. Generally, when it's your birthday (in Spain) you provide the party. For example, if you decide to have everyone meet at a bar to have drinks and tapas, then you're expected to take the bill before moving on to the next bar.

The same goes for house parties. Although in this case, nobody really comes empty handed. The plan was for Antolin to provide the drinks and for me to take care of the food.

I promised everyone that I would make some American food. I provided pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and little chicken sandwiches. They hated the pasta salad, (they don't really do uncooked veggies here) liked the chocolate chip cookies (although they weren't as good as back home because Spanish brown sugar = weird) some peopled liked the PB&J and everyone liked chicken sandwiches.

Additionally, I picked up the ingredients for many of the Spanish favorites. Here you can see Cristina and Carlos the night before the party cooking a Spanish tortilla.

If you don't know what a Spanish tortilla is, don't be fooled. It's nothing like the Mexican one. Spanish tortilla = cut and fry potatoes, then mix in egg and chopped onion mixture, add more olive oil and flip. You can buy them pre-made in the grocery store and it's not uncommon to throw a piece of one between two pieces of bread for a sandwich. Obviously, it's delicious. If you're a picky eater and find yourself vacationing in Spain, order this.

And speaking of the night before the party, my roommate Cristina and I spent hours decorating our apartment. Given the fact that the party was in the middle of February we decided to do a Valentine's Day theme. Everyone was supposed to come wearing red, pink, white or black. Also, each girl was supposed to bring a candle which we planned to use to light the apartment, rather than real lighting. My roommate gets credit for this romantic idea haha.

A few pictures of our apartment before the festivities:

And the fridge...

The party took place on a Thursday. School gets out at 2:30, the festivities began at 3:00. People brought all kinds of food, from croquettes to frog legs.

Below you can see when we started putting out the food:

Victoria with her heart "sandwich cake" creation. Made out of bread, mayo, corn and some other stuff:

Yep, frog legs, a local favorite. They're actually quite tender:

Various pictures from the festivities:

 

If you think you're seeing some artificial hair in these pictures, you thought right. Somebody busted out some wigs and everyone else just rolled with it! This = why I love these people. By the way, Angel and Alejandro (below) decided to take their "dressing in white" task all the way. Like the jump suits?

 We moved our couches out onto our terrace which worked out great - it was a beautiful day!

After everyone was fed and tired of running around in wigs it was time for cake. Below you can see a picture of me with the birthday boy, Antolin.

They sung to us in English and Spanish, hilarious.

What's next? Presents! Here in town, we all pitch in to get something for the birthday boy/girl of the week. Though pitching in for presents as a group is common in the United States as well, I think it is even more so here. I got an adorable dress and a purse to match.

The below picture is not from the party but I'm wearing the dress that I got for my birthday:

Some of my friends back home suggested I take a short video during the party to capture the "ambiance" of the get-togethers in Herrera. In the below clip everyone breaks out into song - always happens, seriously. I can't watch it without smiling.

And to finish up the night, we headed out to our favorite local spots as usual:

Hope you enjoyed it - stay tuned for the next one.

Planting Trees in Cañamero

Every year, high school students from Herrera del Duque participate in a service trip through ADENEX - Asociación para la Defensa de la Naturaleza y los Recursos de Extremadura (Association for the Defense of Natural Resources in Extremadura). I had the priveledge of participating during the first week in February. The project involves planting trees in the town of Cañamero which also happens to be the same place in the province of Cáceres where the "Algo Asi" restaurant is located.

A dry and extremely hot area in the summer, Extremadura is a very dangerous place for forrest fires. Cañamero is one of several towns that has been affected by forrest fires in recent years. Particularly during the summer of 2003, when the amount of forrest fires in the region was completely devastating. 

The ADENEX organization runs several environmental programs and the one that we helped with is called "Plantabosques." Literally, "plant a forrest." Since 2004, the Plantabosques program has taken volunteers out to affected areas to plant trees every weekend from February to April.

Here are a few pictures I took of the beautiful area surrounding Cañamero:

Although a large portion of the weekend's volunteers were high school students, workers of all shapes and sizes are welcome. Volunteers include, families, church groups, businesses and even children:

The program provided us with food and housing for the weekend. As you can imagine, sharing a hostel with 30 fifteen-year-olds can get a little hectic...

I like to call him Justin Beiber (which of course he hates):

Group picture in the hostel, please don't try to find me in this one:

Both Saturday and Sunday we woke up at 8:00, were hauled out to as far as the buses could take us, and then walked four miles to our designated planting area. Given the gorgeous weather and scenery, it wasn't much of a chore but I'm sure some of the students would say otherwise.

One of the English teachers, Isabel, is the person who organizes this entire feat. I have to admire her patience and dedication to this program! Here she is workin hard:

More tree planting:

And to wrap it up, a final group photo taken during our last day. What a fun weekend!

Holiday Season Festivities in my Village

As most of my entries have focused around where I go on my travels, I figured I'd finally write one about the actual town I live in, Herrera Del Duque. Although I teach at both the high school and the elementary school, most of my social life stems from my co-workers at the high school. I was so lucky to be placed in a town with such an inviting group of people who always seem to put "having fun" at the top of their list!

Like any workplace in the United States, the high school had its annual Christmas celebration for staff. Theirs consisted of a meal at a nice restaurant in town, and like most company Christmas parties, everyone dressed up. It started at 3:00 pm on a Thursday, their lunch time. School gets out at 2:30. This meant everyone had half an hour to run home, freshen up, change and meet at the restaurant. (This wasn't quite as difficult as you might think considering everything in my town is in walking distance - and not all the teachers work up until the last period at school).

Here's a picture of where we ate, notice the bread on the table - an absolute must for every meal:

After we put a good dent in our delicious food it was time to unveil the recipients of the secret santa gifts. Here, they call secret santa "amigo invisiblie" - invisible friend (if you couldn't figure that one out on your own). I personally feel that anyone reading this will appreciate my friend Carlos' gift the most.

Here he is, take a guess at whats in that bag:

This might give you a better idea:

Yes folks, that is a leg of ham. If I haven't mentioned it before, ham is one of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of Spain, particularly serrano ham. Serrano ham is a delicacy here. It's basically really thinly sliced, cured, salty ham that comes from the tender meat on the leg. Don't tell any Spanish people if you don't like it, they just won't understand.

In addition to serrano ham, Spainiards eat everything pork. Many argue that the pigs on the Iberian Peninsula are the best, and they might be right. Personally, I'd compare their pig meat to our cow meat. Sorry Spainiards, but you just cannot get a good hamburger or steak here. Furthermore, burgers and the various types of steak are just not as popular here as they are in the U.S. In fact, order a burger at a bar and I guarantee you will get something that consists of at least 80% pig meat.

OK I think I'm done with my pig tangent now. In addition to serrano ham we also ate cod, croquettes, some type of fried potatoes (it wasn't french fries or chips), salad (dressing made from white wine vinegar and olive oil), smoked salmon, chicken and fried shrimp. Most of that food was cooked in Spanish olive oil and when you add in the local wine, you have a very typical Spanish meal. I'm still trying to solve the mystery as to why the people here are not fat.

Here's a picture of some of us during the meal. You can see my new roommate Cristina, directly to my left:

The secret santa gift-giving consisted of a lot of cheering and excitement, and it got everyone just riled up enough to start singing songs. Obviously, you probably couldn't just walk into any old restaurant in Spain and see a large group of people singing in celebration, but I will say that most Spainiards I've met are completely open to the idea of celebrations.

In-between songs, somebody decided to pass around blow up Nemo toys. These kept us occupied for a little while:

At some point I went to the bathroom and upon my return the whole group started singing the American National Anthem as a joke. They put their hands on their hearts and everything. Since they were only imitating what they've heard on our T.V. programs it sounded something like, "ohhhh wayyy can juu wiiiiiiiii." Hilarious.

My co-workers told me that because it was the Christmas party, everyone would dress up and everyone would stay out late to celebrate. I'd probably say that normally I spend Thursday evenings with the "under 35 and single crowd" but this night was different, a celebration for all of the staff.

Here we are at our first stop, after the meal:

By the time 10:30 rolled around (dinner time here) I was still full, but skipping meals is not an option in Spain. We plopped down at another one of our favorite spots to eat:

The rest of the night was a blast. As it turns out, I'm glad my flight home for Christmas didn't leave earlier. This night in particular marked one of my favorite Spanish cultural experiences thus far.

The following Saturday I had another opportunity to experience something unique here in Extremadura. As a continuation of Christmas festivities we had a lunch planned in the neighboring town of Cañamero. Since it was about an hour drive we rented a bus to haul all of us to and from the restaurant.

Here I am on the bus with my Portuguese friend, Tiago (he got stationed in my village working for Nestle - and hangs out with the teachers often).

So why did we decide to haul all the way out to this restaurant? First of all, the name of the restaurant "Algo Así" literally means "something like that." It's also a phrase often used to describe something unique. And unique it was!

The restaurant is located in the middle of the country, off of a dirt road. It was opened by a Swiss couple, Frank y Susanna Sinzig who decided a few years ago to fulfill their dream of opening a restaurant in the countryside of Spain. What makes the food extra special is that all of it comes from the country surrounding the restaurant. This couple grows their own fruit and vegetables and even slaughters their own meat!


Picture of the entrance:

Here you can see my friend Ismael and I holding the wine that the couple produced on their land:

The food was delicious and was described as "international fare." It surely was different from the typical Spanish food I eat in restaurants on a weekly basis. Additionally, the menu is always chef's choice (not a bad thing, I promise). From fresh squeezed fruit juice and a distinctive environment, to wonderfully seasoned pork and bread that actually wasn't crunchy,  Algo Así offered a truely unique dining experience. It definitely has my vote to be featured on the food network!

This picture gives a good perspective of what the inside looked like:

Here, my friend Vanessa and her boyfriend toasting with the after meal liquor. Speaking of liquor, everyone here drinks a little bit of it after a large meal. Apparently it helps with digestion. Why don't we do this?

If you're an "off the beaten path" type of traveler and you find yourself in Extremadura, I definitely recommend hitting up this inimitable restaurant for a rare and wonderful experience!

That about wraps up my Christmas festivities entry. In the days following, I flew back to the U.S. for some quality time with family and friends. It was a strange feeling to leave here and come back but I'm definitely looking forward to a fun and exciting second half!